The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress. In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world’s largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. To sidestep that requirement, President Obama’s climate negotiators are devising what they call a “politically binding” deal that would “name and shame” countries into cutting their emissions. The deal is likely to face strong objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill and from poor countries around the world, but negotiators say it may be the only realistic path.

American negotiators are instead homing in on a hybrid agreement — a proposal to blend legally binding conditions from an existing 1992 treaty with new voluntary pledges. The mix would create a deal that would update the treaty, and thus, negotiators say, not require a new vote of ratification. Countries would be legally required to enact domestic climate change policies — but would voluntarily pledge to specific levels of emissions cuts and to channel money to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change. Countries might then be legally obligated to report their progress toward meeting those pledges at meetings held to identify those nations that did not meet their cuts. The strategy comes as scientists warn that the earth is already experiencing the first signs of human-caused global warming — more severe drought and stronger wildfires, rising sea levels and more devastating storms. In seeking to go around Congress to push his international climate change agenda, Mr. Obama is echoing his domestic climate strategy. In June, he bypassed Congress and used his executive authority to order a far-reaching regulation forcing American coal-fired power plants to curb their carbon emissions.

Leading Anti-Marijuana Academics Are Paid by Painkiller Drug Companies

As Americans continue to embrace pot—as medicine and for recreational use—opponents are turning to a set of academic researchers to claim that policymakers should avoid relaxing restrictions around marijuana. It’s too dangerous, risky, and untested, they say. Just as drug company-funded research has become incredibly controversial in recent years, forcing major medical schools and journals to institute strict disclosure requirements, could there be a conflict of interest issue in the pot debate?

VICE has found that many of the researchers who have advocated against legalizing pot have also been on the payroll of leading pharmaceutical firms with products that could be easily replaced by using marijuana. When these individuals have been quoted in the media, their drug-industry ties have not been revealed.

Take, for example, Dr. Herbert Kleber of Columbia University. Kleber has impeccable academic credentials, and has been quoted in the press and in academic publications warning against the use of marijuana, which he stresses may cause wide-ranging addiction and public health issues. But when he’s writing anti-pot opinion pieces for CBS News, or being quoted by NPR and CNBC, what’s left unsaid is that Kleber has served as a paid consultant to leading prescription drug companies, including Purdue Pharma (the maker of OxyContin), Reckitt Benckiser (the producer of a painkiller called Nurofen), and Alkermes (the producer of a powerful new opioid called Zohydro).

Bob, thank you for all the updates. I honestly don’t understand Putin’s goal in this invasion unless he truly has become insane. How could it be of value to himself and to Russia to be regarded as a pariah nation and to stir potentially quiet nations and entities like NATO into active enemies? Does he think that Ukraine will simply roll over and accept invasion? Does he believe there’s any economic profit whatsoever for Russia to have higher and higher levels of sanctions? Not only is the disconnect between Putin and real world getting bigger, but he seems to be operating on strategies that would have seemed stale in his grandfather’s time.

Hello Jackie. I believe Russian’s last Tsar knows exactly what he is doing. He knows that this President is too careful and thoughtful to engage the US in another war. Most of the EU countries are too busy fighting unemployment in their countries to face off to him. That must have been his calculation. What he forgets is that this POTUS works differently. He is not the type to rush to war to wonder afterward what on Earth are we doing there? He is a man who says that he will work with the international community, that the EU and others must cooperate to face common challenges together, and that no longer will the US be the policeman of the world for the benefits of all others (who refuse to pick up part of the tab). He does what he says.

Putin is as stubborn as a teabagger and finds a good distraction in invading Ukraine, given the domestic challenges he faces at home. He is providing a scapegoat for his failed policies. In fact, Merkel was right. He is a deranged man.

My terse synopsis regarding the situation, Jackie, is “‘Messianic’ Putin.” LL wrote a bit about this here. If you Google it, you’ll find numerous commentary.

He engineered his 3rd term as President and justified it by unleashing a new wave of “Russian Nationalism.” Sochi was a $50 Billion dollar boondoggle, a PR disaster as it became obvious you could not safely use the water in hotel rooms and folk got locked in their bathrooms, and it’s now a $ 50 billion dollar ghost town. Putin saw it coming so he decided to pull another Georgia and annex Crimea (primarily to block Ukraine from accessing the considerable off shore natural gas resources between Crimea and Russia. He got away with it and then realized he had a single route of access to it, via a bridge, so he needed a land route and that land route happens to be inside additional Ukrainian real estate. And, a bunch of that real estate also happens to be where significant Ukraine defense industry facilities that manufacture stuff Russia needs happen to reside. So ……..

The fact is that he will keep going until the international community stops him. It’s always been that way. Only difference now is that sufficient nuclear arms exist to make the planet uninhabitable, indefinitely, in a matter of 15 to 20 min.

Will be interesting to hear what President Obama has to say later today. Without any doubt he knows the enormity of the risk now confronting humanity. Putin won’t stop on his own; someone is going to have to stop him. That you can ‘take to the bank.’

Thank you, Bob, for both of these very clear explanations. The analogy with a teabagger mentality is very interesting. Putin has to exploit and win NOW, just as teabaggers want power now at any cost and never mind the future. Putin doesn’t appear to concern himself with what will or will not hurt Russia in the end if he can gain a tactical advantage in the present. Negotiating with someone like that is very difficult, as PBO has found out. People wedded to “want now” will not bend. But if you are very smart and very strategic and very patient like our president, you will always be able to out think, out plan and out wait the one who doesn’t bend.

Billo also said on his show that he and his “kind” didn’t want the balance of things….meaning power…. to change for that will be unAmerican. That he liked the way things stood. Then he understood White privilege. Now he fakes selective amnesia?

#27,010,098: checking in: :). Having a wonderful, fabulous, splendid and enjoyable time with DaughterAngel! Have been way busier than I prefer, kitty is a bit miffed with me being gone or occupied so much, but time is fleeting, and I wouldnt miss a minute of it! Big hugs all around, God Bless our dedicated President, and his family, who all make it possible for him to achieve an extraordinary level of, well, everything!! <3 back later.

Mayor de Blasio has been keeping his campaign promises one-by-one.
The NY Press/Media is crazed and out-of-their minds with each success.
Mayor deBlasio’s press coverage rivals PBO’s in that his successes are smothered and the RW Opposition is blared loudly all the time.

In other NY News, pseudodem Gov. Cuomo has been astonished and dismayed to see that an independent candidate named Zephyr Teachout is getting tremendous and positive notice as is her running mate, Tim Woo. Both of them are Real progressives and although they are unlikely to take down Gov.1% still we can all enjoy his discomfort!!!!!
Primary is in less than 2 weeks.

Vicki – you are right. I’ve observed a smattering of recent “negative” propaganda in the media – based on “polls” about Americans being “anxious” about the economy. I CALL B.S.!!! The media is now manufacturing shit to get the public to think that the economy is bad and not doing well. If any one is “anxious” it’s actually the 1% (and their supporters) who fear that this country’s wealth will be more evenly distributed in the years to come.

I agree arapaho I think wages rate has a lot to do with the anxiety that Americans are expressing. People don’t feel the good the news numbers in their pockets which is the bottom line. There was also a report from the CBO this week that the forecasted growth rate is just 1.5% for 2014 because of the sluggish growth at the beginning of the year.

Sorry but I’m not buying any of this. The economy is doing well, and people are more optimistic than ever and spending more. People’s 401K’s are doing much better. Vicki’s initial response to that tweet was correct. This is a RW/MSM narrative to distract from the good economic news.

The Consumer Index is now above 89%……This is how Americans have always been measured for many years. Export is Up. Spending is Up. 4.7M Jobs are unfilled. 2 for 1 looking for job. Nothing lately had contradicted these numbers. Deficit is down. Dow is Up and 401Ks are growing. 10K baby Boomers are retiring daily.

The Business Media and Fox have been bad-mouthing the economy……..They are LYING! There are fewer part-time jobs. Uninsured have gotten more coverage.

“You really must disabuse yourself of this idea. Lunch counters and buses were crucial symbolic planes of struggle that the civil rights movement used to dramatize the issue, but the main suffering in the south did not come from our inability to drink from the same fountain, ride in the front of the bus or eat lunch at Woolworth’s.

It was that white people, mostly white men, occasionally went berserk, and grabbed random black people, usually men, and lynched them. You all know about lynching. But you may forget or not know that white people also randomly beat black people, and the black people could not fight back, for fear of even worse punishment.”

CNN) — A company behind the video messaging service that allegedly captured audio of Michael Brown’s shooting this month said Thursday the recording was created at about the time Brown was killed.

The revelation from the company, Glide, appears to bolster a man’s claim that he inadvertently recorded audio of gunfire at the time the 18-year-old Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on August 9.

The video was created at 12:02:14 p.m. that day, Glide said. That’s around the time that police say Brown was shot.

CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the tape.

The sounds could be a piece in the larger puzzle of what happened in the moments before the 18-year-old’s death. The FBI obtained the audio and interviewed the man who made the recording, said Lopa Blumenthal, a lawyer for that individual.

CNN has asked the FBI for confirmation of that interview.
——-

If that policeman (Darrell Wilson) is not arrested, I don’t know what it will take.

Here is what they’ll ask him…
What did you shoot while playing golf over last week?
How does Malia like her new job?
If you lose the senate will you resign?
What did you eat for lunch?
Etc…
Just trying to get under his skin, always.

At least four hostages held in Syria by the Islamic State, including an American journalist who was recently executed by the group, were waterboarded in the early part of their captivity, according to people familiar with the treatment of the kidnapped Westerners.

James Foley was among the four who were waterboarded several times by Islamic State militants who appeared to model the technique on the CIA’s use of waterboarding to interrogate suspected terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Why? It’s not an isolated incident. It’s another form of “lynching & intimidation”..Bring a law suite would be like taking sand to the beach!
I’m being to doubt that any of this can be solved without blood shed on both sides.

no Yardarm….it will take organization….non-violent organizing…I believe what Dr King says…it must be non violence or non existence….I will not give into that notion that violence is the only way….neither can you

Living While Black: Police attack men for sitting, not resisting, not walking, pockets.

They feature a black man tased for sitting, another for hands in pockets, another for not walking (and he died), and a beating for having his hands in the air. To all the people who said Michael Brown should have just gotten out of the street – there is no safety.

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania agreed to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, joining 26 states and the District of Columbia.

Federal regulators accepted a modified proposal from Gov. Tom Corbett (R) that will offer an estimated 500,000 low-income individuals subsidies to purchase private insurance. The plan allows some low-income individuals to be charged premiums for coverage, and permits the number of available benefit plans to be reduced from 14 to two — a “high-risk” option and “low-risk” options — according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn B. Tavenner lauded the agreement in a statement, and urged other states to expand Medicaid as well. Corbett is only the 9th Republican governor to sign on.

Linda, this plan is very limited with too many unnecessary hurdles and will result in many people being denied Medicaid coverage. It’s the Tom Corbett way of making a mess of everything he touches. I hope that he will leave the stage at the end of this year and Wolf can seek full scale Medicaid expansion making full use of the resources available under the ACA.

Hope the president’s statement will be posted soon. I just caught the tail end of the questions, but I was thrilled to hear PBO say Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a sign of weakness and will mean further isolation of Russia from its trading partners.

I DO BELIEVE PBO JUST PUT THE PRESS IN THEIR PLACE REGARDING JUMPING AHEAD ON A STRATEGY FOR ISIS AND YES CONGRESS WILL BE IN ON IT…HOWEVER THEY HAVE PBO AMNESIA SO LETS SEE HOW LONG IT TAKES THEM TO FORGET THIS PC.

President Obama made a statement about the latest developments in Iraq and Ukraine and responded to reporters’ questions. He said that ISIS* posed “an immediate threat to the people of Iraq” and that a regional coalition was needed to meet the threat. He also said that Russia was responsible for the instability in Ukraine.

* ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is a militant group that seized several cities in northern and western Iraq.

My e-mail box and home phone are chock full of endorsements for Timothy Wu running against RWDem Kathy Hochul who is boasting that she voted against obamacare many times.
Hochul is Gov. 15 Cuomo’s running mate and the lt.gov. vote is Separate. You can if you wiah vote for Cuomo but NOT for Hochul.
If Wu wins he will act as a progressive brake on Cuomo’s RW agenda.
If you know anyone in NY state please urge them to vote for Timothy Wu and Zephyr Teachout (who won’t win) on Tuesday September 9.

Tim Wu is a Democrat running as an independent who has an excellent chance to win.

AND…ANOTHER REPORTER IN A HIGHCHAIR WITH A BIB WONDERING ABOUT MILITARY ACTION ON RUSSIA’S LATEST OVER THE LINE MISTAKE?…THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN OUT IN THE WOODS WITH CHENEY FOR TOO LONG…THEY THINK AMERICA IS SUPPOSED TO ARM WRESTLE EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON IN THIS WORLD…HELLO!…HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL…WE HAVE FOR A CHANGE…A THINKING PRESIDENT…DEAR AMERICA..GET USED TO IT.

LH, as usual Wapo gets it wrong. This ‘expansion’ is so flawed that it will probably result in less, rather than, more coverage for people who need it. Corbett is grabbing at anything to get positive PR.

Before anyone starts clapping about PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s great expansion of Medicaid, please see the following. He is doing this very limited version so as to pre-empt the next Democratic governor who will do it the right way.

He will be replaced in Nov. Dems in PA outnumber GOPers……if Dems Vote, a Dem Gov with mandate and a State House with sane legislatures and PA would do right by her 500K who will need ACA…..Via…..Medicare.

I JUST READ THOSE TWEETS…I CAN’T IMAGINE ANYONE JOKING ABOUT THAT SUIT…OUR PBO IS A VERY HANDSOME MAN…I GUESS THE ENVIOUS ONES CAN’T STAND THAT FACT!…HE LOOKED AMAZING..I SHOULD SAY…AS USUAL! I DON’T TWEET SO I DIDN’T KNOW OTHERS WERE BEING SO STUPID!

So the President could have said that he was sending in boots on the ground to Iraq and Syria, but all those stupid ass press would have seen or heard is the color of President suit. Oh how the press have fallen.

In this case it’s not about race, it’s about the media’s desire for a silly distraction because the Ukraine/Russia/Iraq story now bores the hell out of them. PBO is not going to war, and so the media is not interested anymore.

I think this is the suit he wore to Valerie Jarrett’s daughter’s wedding either last summer or two summers ago. It is total elegance.
And Kevin Spacey doesn’t look nearly as good in his beige suit as PBO does.

The US Media is useless. They look for distractions. They are clearly now undermining our form of Democracy. Their job is to inform and report. Now, they look for ways to mock and insult. Fox started it, but MSNBC by saying politics is what they are all about…..has given a platform for the pundits to be always in a 24/7 looking for anything to drive a narrative on a cycle……365 days in a year.